Personally, I really like this piece because it has a fair amount of the old pulp stylings within it. I call it ‘Best Laid Plans’. These unlucky adventurers are returning from a successful exploration of a jungle temple seen in the distance. However, fate  has stepped in to make sure, that at the very least, nobody is going to be having any drinking or wenching money at the tavern tonight.  At the worst, they will be exploring a croc’s inner workings. Such is the life of a dungeon adventurer : )

     For a bit larger picture:  http://www.battleduck.com/fantasy/bestlaidplans.html

     This picture shows a workbench I just completed over this weekend inside the Broc Sett.  It is 12 foot wide, around 30 inches deep with the top about 42 inches or so off the floor.  I drew up rough plans where I wanted to go, bought the lumber and winged it from there. There is  storage space directly accessible underneath the top which is in three pieces. This is not a bench for pounding on but for creation and assembly of ideas. A smaller bench for beating on things will be made so as to fit underneath this one.  I can just roll it out when I need it. For me, this a landmark as this is the first dedicated space I have ever had to do larger projects. Perhaps, more importantly is that I am now one step closer to making puppets and stop-motion stuff.

     It is interesting that once you have a tool or a space to work in,  ideas that would have never crossed your mind are suddenly generated in buckets simply because of the fact of ownership.

ShareThis

     This Necon was probably the best ever. We had the usual curve ball from the campus provider and wound up camping at their reception center about a mile away over the Mount Hope bridge. Rooms and rooming became an opportunity of flexibility for the housing portion of the committee. Fortunately, I only run the art show.

     Whatever rooming glitches there may have been, it that was made up by the fact that the function rooms , ie: the dealers, art and panel discussion rooms were large, with working AC and all were contiguous. Cafeteria, rooms, swimming pool, exercise room and a courtyard for BBQ’ing were literally all within rock throwing distance. And that would be a rock thrown by a penguin. Not having to walk scads of distance through swelter to eat or get something from your room was a pleasure for all.

     The art show ran well and many blessings to all those wonderful people who helped to move all those panels up and down. The roast duck was John McIlveen, a really nice guy who deserves his children, hehe. The short notice talent show got about a dozen entries and what a hoot. Lots of truly talented people. There was frantic headbanging-chaos-rock to belly dancing to the entire convention singing choruses to the musical stylings of Cthulhu cultist and writer, Gary Frank.

     Micki won third place for her belly dancing routine. Her valuable prize was a flying monkey catapult gun with four flying monkeys. I am going to mount it on a plaque and get it all gussied up. The medals we made for the Olympics went over well and I even got a gold one back for placing first in croquet. BTW, croquet is the Olympic sport of kings : )

     Next year, we hope to be able to stay at the con itself. We had to truck back every night to be sure that Mojo, now about 11 months, hadn’t tore down the house. He has more energy than any three dogs and not much way to get rid of it except to tear ass around the yard while savaging whatever it is he has dragged outside whether that would be shoes, clothing, comforters etc.

Pictures are courtesy of talented artist, Steve Gilberts.

ShareThis

So there they are, ready to be won, the gold, silver and bronze for this years events. I designed and prepped these. The lovely and talented Manuela Birner finished them off with all the sparklies, rhinestones and such. I tried several times and only adequately captured the glistening effect of the surface.  They are roughly 3.25″ wide by 3.5″ high.

This is one of five of a special black edition that will be for sale. These were given even more attention with addition of faux gemstones in several places.

I suspect Necon will be hot again this year but when the sun goes down, the beer and saugies will appear and all will be well. Hope to see you there!

ShareThis

The shooting was great fun and a fairly rigorous amount of targets to skewer were provided all based on a piratical theme with liberal doses of ideas and artistry from the silly film Yellowbeard.

All told, the two prequalifying rounds took around 4 hours. The first round had eight stations through the woods with targets ranging from1 1/2 wide slats on jail cell windows, to marauding pirates to flying parrots. The second round was held in lightly wooded meadows and consisted of some timed shoots, moving targets behind castle walls and a slot shoot. At that time, those with the sixteen highest scores were chosen to move on to the field to face the final challenges.

The king and queen were set up at the treeline along with the rest of the spectators lining the edge of the sun drenched meadow. The archers were facing into the sun as an added hurdle.

Single elimination trimmed the numbers to eight then to 4 and in the end, Owen, a young archer from Smoking Rocks took the prize. It was a long day but a good one filled with surprises, good food and friendly faces.

I will allow Mistress Avelina Keyes to report on my doings by pasting her report to the Bridge chat:

Greetings!

I bring you all tidings from Kings and Queens Archery Championships
this past Saturday.

Rafael de Sardinia called the Grey shot amazing!! It was his
first K&Q Archery Champs and he made it to the finals. He went in to
the top 16 in three way tie for second with Urho of the Pines and one
other gentle. Rafael was knocked out in head to head competition in
the round of 8.

After the tournament, Rafael was recognized in Court by the King and
the Queen for his achievement of the rank of Grand Master Bowman.

Vivat!!

In service,
Mistress Avelina Keyes, OP
Baroness Lockwood
Lieutenant General at Large
Captain of Archers of Bridge

So I fared fairly well and was quite happy to play with the big boys. Later at  court, I was recognized by the king for achieving the rank of grandmaster bowman and also for doing so within less than a years time.  I received my gold badge and was presented with an absolutely beautiful scroll by Lady Khioniya Nikolaevna Ryseva. That’s a whole lot of glory for one day!

 Top portion of scroll showing detail work.

Here’s looking forward to next year!

ShareThis

For me, this was the man that took puppetry to new heights. Puppets that were so ‘real’ that when you saw them on film that you did not question their reality but rather watched in awe and sometimes horror as they moved about. The dinosaurs of Jurassic Park, especially the brachiosaur sneezing and the fallen triceratops were fabulous living creatures to stare at in wonder. The alien queen in Aliens bespoke of an artistry that suspended disbelief with ease. A fourteen foot remote controlled monstrosity that took over a dozen techs to operate. Now that’s a puppet!!!     

A sign of mastery is when it looks easy.     

I remember the first time I saw The Thing. It gave me nightmares for a week. The smallest noise and I would wake up sweating. Thanks Stan!!!

ShareThis

ShareThis

 Part of the reason for visiting was also to see friends and what real camping was all about. Beds and rugs in large spacious tents were the order of the day. A far cry from our previous experiences with sleeping on the ground while wrestling with terrier-sized mosquitos.

We, of course, left more money than we really wanted to in the vendors hands for safe keeping. Some delicious Turkish coffee rounded the day off and by then it was quite time to leave. The drive back was easy as was the drive up. All in all a quite lovely time. Perhaps, one day we might be camping at the Roses, ‘roughing’ it as it were out on the fields ourselves.

ShareThis

In the background of all this was , of course, was the festival itself. Literally dozens and dozens of bagpipers seemed to play all day long, while crowds plied the food areas and the many vendors and exhibitions. There were many tents labelled with clan names and I believe from the roar of distant crowds some of those gut busting heavy item tossing events that those Scottish lads seem to really get into were happening. It was large festival with everything to make a crowd happy. A great time indeed! The weather had turned from storming all night and it was another charming sunny and windy day much like at Balfar’s Challenge.  However, I was not caught unawares this time! Hat and sunblock were in force.

With Mistress Avelina in charge, Aedwyn of Bridge and myself worked the archery field. This work consisted of target shooting and talking to the crowds of inquisitive and surprisingly interested people. I left the bulk of the talking to those whose can do that more judiciously than myself and busied myself by shooing people away from the business end of the archery range. We also had a novelty waterbag shoot where two bags with water were suspended from a rope. The bag that drained first from being hit by arrows would be pulled upward by the other’s weight thus signalling the winner. Crowds really liked this as did the archers. Kudos to the Ralph the Carter for his brilliant design work on the contraption that allowed it all to happen. Many wanted to try their hands at a bow and see what they could do, however we were neither authorized or equipped to let the public shoot. Perhaps next year! There  is just something about shooting sticks into the air that fills one with the happiness. I think it is just the simplicity and chaos of it all : ) 

Below, two of the Bridge’s finest go at it. In the distance you can see the archery range area. Photo courtsey of Alysander Brokentooth.

ShareThis

 A luan board was cut to fit the stool base. It was taped down and the finished dress form was taped to that.  I used  a couple of shingles between the form and the stool top to level the form. That’s about it. It looks terrific and I am already thinking of making one for corset work. I suspect, I will use this one for awhile first to find out what sort of kinks may need to be worked out on the next model.

ShareThis

 Mistress Avelina Keys, Kenny Paul and I formed the 3- member archery team called the Grumpy Badgers and proceeded directly to first place with our efforts. It was grand day for shooting. Bright sunny and actually a bit windy as attested to by my arrows sailing all over the course. A wonderful dayboard under a large open walled structure took care of the hungry part and a nice place to rest out of the sun for awhile. Of course, there was lots of armored combat action and fast fencing types showing off their martial skills. By the end of the day I was pretty tired and rather red and roasted from the neck up.

By nature, I am a shade critter. Shade critters really don’t think about things like sun-block. Well by the next morning my bald pate was weeping serous fluid and really starting to aggravate me. Looks like I had gotten myself a good case of sun poisoning as my reward for my efforts in representing my Barony, lol.  It is now three days later and the top of my skull looks like an old medieval map. I got some dark red and pinks and some yellow and browns and what looks like a few craters. I am starting to peel bits of vellum too. Terrific. Well at least my scalp is period. 

Note to self. Sun-block and a bigggggggggggg hat.

ShareThis